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Selinger was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, the son of Margaret Eva (Crawford) and Nicodemus Selinger.[8][9] He came to Manitoba from Saskatchewan as a child with his single mother, who ran a small clothing store in Winnipeg.[10]

Before entering politics, he worked as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba,[11] and sat on the boards of the St. Boniface Hospital, the St. Boniface Museum, the Community Income Tax Service Boards, and as President of the Old St. Boniface Residents Association.[5][6][12]

After joining an alliance of progressive municipal politicians called Winnipeg into the '90s in the late 1980s, Selinger was elected to the Winnipeg City Council in 1989[13] as a candidate of the alliance in St. Boniface,[12] defeating incumbent Guy Savoie.[10] During his time as a city councillor, Selinger was a member of the Executive Policy Committee and was the Chair of the Committee on Finance and Administration.[7][10][12]

In January 2005, Selinger announced that his government would change its system of accounting for expenditures and revenues. This followed a request from Auditor GeneralJon Singleton, who criticized the government for listing crown corporation losses and other matters as off-budget spending. Selinger is considered a strong performer in the Doer Cabinet.

In April 2013, the Selinger government reneged on an earlier promise to not increase sales taxes by implementing a 1% increase in the provincial sales tax rate from 7% to 8%, which resulted in a precipitous decline in popular support for the government and, ultimately, a caucus revolt against Selinger's leadership culminating in the resignation of five cabinet ministers.[27][28] Due, in part, to the unpopularity of the tax increase, the NDP fell far behind the Opposition Progressive Conservatives in public opinion polls. In the fall of 2014 several cabinet ministers privately asked Selinger to resign in hopes that the party would recover under a new leader, he declined. In September 2014, during a caucus retreat, several MLAs openly told Selinger he needed to resign but he refused.[28] A month later, at the end of October Jennifer Howard, (Fort Rouge), minister of finance, Stan Struthers, (Dauphin), minister of municipal government, Theresa Oswald, (Seine River), minister for jobs and the economy, Andrew Swan, (Minto), minister of justice and Erin Selby, (Southdale), minister of health.[29] and several senior party officials went public with their call for Selinger's resignation.[28] On November 3, the five ministers resigned from cabinet due to their opposition to Selinger's continued leadership but remained in the NDP caucus as backbench MLAs. Selinger responded on November 9 by asking the party executive to hold a leadership election during the party's annual convention scheduled for March 6–8, 2015, stating his intention to be a candidate.[30] The party executive subsequently agreed. Theresa Oswald, one of the five rebel ex-ministers, challenged Selinger for the leadership as did Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation Steve Ashton who had not protested against Selinger but who resigned from cabinet to enter leadership contest.[31] At the March 8, 2015 leadership election, Ashton was eliminated on the first ballot and Selinger prevailed on the second ballot with 50.93% of ballots cast, defeating Oswald by 33 votes.[32]